AUSTIN, TEXAS: Small and medium businesses are accelerating plans to migrate to Windows 7 following the operating system’s October 22, 2009 launch, according to a new report by Spiceworks, Inc.

This and other findings were uncovered in a global survey of over 1,500 IT professionals. The survey was designed to investigate adoption sentiment among small and medium businesses (SMBs) before and after the official Windows 7 debut.

Small and medium businesses are speeding up plans to adopt Windows 7. The survey found a 20 per cent increase in the number of SMBs planning to speed up their adoption rates of Windows 7 following the official launch. Plans to start upgrades “immediately” and “in the next 90 days” increased by 10 per cent respectively post-launch, said a the study report.
 
IT pros at the smallest firms are most aggressive in their upgrade plans. Over 40 per cent plan to start upgrading in the first 90 days post-launch. This is more than double the rate of organizations with more than 20 employees, and it differs from past behavior among this market segment, which is historically slower to adopt new operating systems.

Speed as a reason for upgrading jumped 11 per cent post-launch. Among those moving faster with their Windows 7 adoption plans post-launch, the top three reasons for doing so were speed (73 per cent), user interface (69 per cent) and switch from their current OS (57 per cent).
 
Windows 7 upgrade plans differed between various regions of the world. Nearly 10 percent more IT professionals at SMBs in the North America (NA) and Asia/Pacific (APAC) regions are upgrading at a faster rate than their counterparts in the Europe/Middle East/Africa (EMEA) and Latin America/South America (LA/SA) regions.

According to the report, In the next 12 months, the majority of Windows 7 installations would be on existing machines. 45 per cent of Windows 7 installations would be on new machines, while 55 per cent would be on existing machines.
 
“Smaller organizations around the world seem more confident about upgrading to Windows 7 post-launch,” said Jay Hallberg, co-founder and vice president of Marketing for Spiceworks.

He added, “More SMBs plan to upgrade, and a larger number of them are speeding up their upgrade plans. This could be a very positive sign for Windows 7 adoption within the SMB market segment, which accounts for the majority of business computers in the world.”